Apple iOS 5 vs Android 3.1 Honeycomb
Apple iOS 5 is the newest version of the operating system by Apple for iOS devices. It was unveiled on 6 June 2011 and will be available for end users by the fall of 2011. Android 3.1, code named as Honeycomb is the operating system built exclusively for large screen devices like tablets. Android Honeycomb was released in April 2011. Android 3.1 is the improved version Android 3.0, which as a very new system had some flaws and most of them were rectified in the Android 3.1 release. Most of the latest tablets other than Apple’s iPad, RIM’s PlayBook and HP’s Touch Pad are based on Android Honeycomb. While iOS 5 is a universal OS for all iDevices, Android 3.1 Honeycomb is a tablet specific operating system. One of the major difference between iOS and Android is that, unlike iOS Android is an open system. However Honeycomb is not tweaked much like other Android versions; most of the tablets run stock Android Honeycomb only. One of the missing feature in iOS 5 is the Near Field Communication (NFC). Also iOS 5 like its previous versions does not support Adobe Flash Player.
iOS 5
iOS is the latest Apple OS version announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2011 in San Francisco on 6th June 2011. The new operating system includes over 1500 APIs and more than 200 new features, out of which 10 most important features were demonstrated at the conference. They are the Notification Center, iMessage, Newsstand, Reminders, Twitter integration, enhanced Camera features, enhanced Photo features, improved Safari browser, PC free activation to iOS devices and new Game Center features. The other features include TV mirroring, Wi-Fi sync to iTunes, iCloud sync, etc. iOS 5 was released to App developers on 6 June 2011 and available for users by end 2011.
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Apple iOS 5 Release: 6 June 2011 Table_01 |
| New Features and Improvements
1. Notification Center – with the new Notification Centre now you can get all your alerts (including new email, texts, friend requests, etc.) in one place without any interruptions to what you are doing. The swype down notification bar appears briefly at the top of the screen for a new alert and disppears quickly. – All alerts in one place – No more interruptions – Swype down from the top of any screen to enter Notification Center – Customize to see what you want – Active lock screen – notifications display in the lock screen for easy access with one swype 2. iMessage – it is a new messaging service – Send unlimited text messages to iOS devices – Send text, photos, videos, locations and contacts to any iOS device – Send group messaging – Track messages with delivery and read (optional) receipt – See the other party typing – Encrypted text message – Switch between iOS devices while chating 3. Newsstand – read all your news and magazines from one place. Customize Newsstand with your newspaper and magazine subscriptions – Browse stores right from Newsstand – When you subscribe it appears in the newsstand – Folder for easy access to favorite publications 4. Reminders – organize yourself with to-do lists – To-do list with due date, location etc. – View list by date – Set time based or location based reminder alert – Location reminder: get alert when you near the set location – Reminders work with iCal, Outlook and iCloud, so that it auto update change to all your iDevices and callendar 5. Twitter integration – system wide integration – Single sign in – Tweet directly from browser, photo app, camera app, YouTube, Map – Reply to friend in the contact by start typing name – Share your location 6. Enhanced Camera features – Instant access to Camera app: access it right from the lock screen – Pinch to Zoom gestures – Single tap focus – Focus/Exposure locks with touch and hold – Grid lines ti help compose a shot – Volume up button to capture the photo – Photo stream via iCloud to other iDevices 7. Enhanced Photo features – on screen editing and organize in photo album from Photo apps itself – Edit / Crop photo from Photo apps – Add photos to album – iCloud automatically push photos to your other iDevices 8. Improved Safari browser – displays only what you like to read from the web page – Removes ads and other clutters – Add to reading list – Tweet from browser – Update reading list in all your iDevices via iCloud – Tabbed browsing – Performance improvement 9. PC Free activation – no more need for PC: activate your device wirelessly and do more with your Photo and Camara apps right from the screen – OTA software upgrades – On screen camera apps – Do more on screen like on screen photo editing – Back up and restore via iCloud 10. Enhanced Game Center – more features added – Post your profile picture – New friend recommendations – Find new games right from Games Center – Get on the spot overall achievement score 11. Wi-Fi Sync – wirelessly sync your iDevice to your Mac or PC vis shared Wi-Fi connection – Auto sync and iTunes back up when connected to power source – Purchases from iTunes appear in all your iDevices 12. Enhanced mail features – Format text – Create indents in the text of your message – Drag to rearrange names in the address field – Flag important messages – Add/Delete mailbox folders on your device – Search mails – Free email account with iCloud that will be updated in all your iDevices 13. Additional Calendar features – Year/Weekly view -Tap to create new event – Drag to edit date and duration – Add/rename/delete calendars directly from your device -View attachment right from calendar app – Calendar sync/share via iCloud 14. Multitasking gestures for iPad 2 – Multi finger gestures – New moves and short cuts like swipe up for multi tasking bar 15. AirPlay Mirroring – Support for video mirroring 16. Innovative new features for differently abled people – Work with specialized hardware accessories for differently abled – LED Flash and custom vibration to indicate incoming call – Custom element labeling |
| Compatible Devices:
iPad2, iPad, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPad Touch 3rd and 4th generation |
Android 3.1 (Honeycomb)
Honeycomb is the first Android platform by Google entirely designed for devices with large screens such as tablets and it is the first version of the platform designed to support symmetric multi processing in a multi core environment. Google took the advantage of the larger real estate of the tablets in mind and built the Honeycomb; you can experience that with the newly designed UI. Android 3.1 is the first major upgrade to Honeycomb, this is an add on to the Android 3.0 features and the UI (given in Table_03). It enhances the capabilities of the OS for both users as well as the developers. With the update, the UI is refined to make it more intuitive and efficient. Navigation between the five home screens is made easy, a touch of the home button in system bar will take you to frequently used homes screen. The home screen widget can be customized to add more information. And the recent apps list is expanded to more number of applications. The update also supports more varieties of input devices and USB connected accessories.
In addition to these new features, some of the standard applications are improved in order to optimize the larger screen. The improved applications are Browser, Gallery, Calendar and Enterprise Support. The improved browser supports CSS 3D, animations and CSS fixed positioning, embedded playback of HTML5 video content and plugins that use hardware accelerated tendering. Web pages can now be saved locally for offline viewing with all styling and imaging. Page Zoom performance also improved, giving a better browsing experience.
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Android 3.1 (Honeycomb) API Level: 12 Release: 10 May 2011 Table_02 |
| New Features – Add on
1. Refined UI – Launcher animation optimized for faster, smoother transition to/from app list – Adjustments in color, positioning and text – Audible feedback for improved accessibility – Customizable touch-hold interval – Navigation to/from five home screens made easy. Touching the home button in system bar will return you to most frequently used home screen. – Improved view of internal storage used by apps 2. More Input Devices – included support for more varieties of input devices such as keyboards, mouse, trackballs, game controllers and accessories such as digital cameras musical instrument, kiosks and card readers. – Any type of external keyboards, mouse and trackballs can be connected – Most of the PC joysticks, game controllers and game pads can be connected except for some proprietary controllers – More than one device can be attached simultaneously via USB and/or Blutooth HID – No configuration or drivers required – Support for USB accessories as host to launch related applications, if application not available the accessories can give the URL to download the application. – Users can interact with application to control the accessories. 3. Recent Apps list is expandable to include larger number of apps. The list will have all the apps in use and recently used apps. 4. Customizable Home screen – Re-sizable home screen widgets. widgets can be expanded in both vertically and horizontally. – Updated home screen widget for Email app gives quick access to emails 5. New high performance Wi-Fi lock added for uninterrupted connectivity even when the device screen is off. This will be useful for streaming long duration music, video and voice services. – HTTP proxy for each individual Wi-Fi access point can be configured. This will be used by the browser when communicating with the networks. Other Apps also may use this. – Configuration is made easy by touch-hold of the access point in the setting – Back up and restore the user defined IP and proxy setting – Support for Preferred Network Offload (PNO), which works in the background and conserves battery power in case where Wi-Fi connectivity needed for longer time. Improvements to Standard Applications 6. Improved Browser app – new features added and UI improved – Quick Controls UI is extended and redesigned. Users can use it to view thumbnails of open tabs, to close the active tabs, access overflow menu for instant access to settings and many other. – Supports CSS 3D, animations, and CSS fixed positioning to all sites. – Supports embedded playback of HTML5 video content – Save the webpage locally for offline viewing with all styling and imaging – Improved auto login UI let users quickly sign in to Google sites and manage access when multiple users sharing the same device – Support for plugins that use hardware accelerated rendering – Page Zoom performance improved 7. Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) – Gallery apps improved to support Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP). – Users can connect external cameras over USB and import pictures to Gallery with one touch – The imported pictures are copied to local storages and it will show the balance space available. 8. Calender grids are made larger for better readability and accurate targeting – Controls in data picker are redesigned – Calender list controls can be hidden to create larger viewing area for grids 9. Contacts app allows full text search making it quicker to locate contacts and the results are shown from all the fields stored in the contact. 10. Email app improved – When replying or forwarding HTML message the improved Email app sends both plain text and HTML bodies as multi-part mime message. – Folder prefixes for IMAP accounts are made easier to define and manage – Prefetches emails from server only when the device is connected to a Wi-Fi access point. This is done to conserve battery power and minimize data usage – Improved home screen widget gives quick access to emails and users can cycle through email labels with the touch of the Email icon at the top of the widget 11. Improved Enterprise support – Administrators can use the configurable HTTP proxy for each Wi-Fi access point – Allows encrypted storage card device policy with emulated storage cards and encrypted primary storage
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| Compatible Devices:
Android Honeycomb Tablets, Google TV |
Features included to Android 3.1 from previous Android 3.0 version
| Android 3.0 (Honeycomb
API Level 11 Release: January 2011 Table_03 |
1. New UI – holographic UI newly designed for large screen displays with content focused interaction, the UI is backward compatible, applications designed for earlier versions can be used with new UI. 2. Refined multitasking 3. Rich notification, no more popups or interruptions to what you do 4. System bar at the bottom of the screen for system status, notification and it accomodates navigation buttons, as like in Google Chrome. 5. Customizable homescreen (5 homescreens) and dynamic widgets for 3D experience 6. Action bar for application control for all applications 7. Redesigned keyboard for larger screen, keys are reshaped and repositioned and new keys added such as Tab key. button in system bar to switch between text/voice input mode 8. Improvement to text selection, copy and paste; very close to what we do in computer. 9. Built in support for Media/Picture Transfer Protocol – you can instantly sync media files through USB cable. 10. Connect to full keyboard via USB or Bluetooth 11. Improved Wi-Fi connectivity 12. New support for Bluetooth tethering – you can connect more types of devices 13. Improved browser for efficient browsing and better browsing experience using the large screen – some of the new features are: – multiple tabbed browsing instead of windows, – incognito mode for anonymous browsing. – single unified view for Bookmarks and History. – multi-touch support to JavaScript and plugins – improved zoom and viewport model, overflow scrolling, support for fixed positioning 14. Redesigned camera application for larger screen – quick access to exposure, focus, flash, zoom, etc. – built-in support for time- lapse video recording – gallery application for full screen mode viewing and easy access to thumbnails 15. Redesigned contacts applications features for larger screen – new two-pane UI for contacts applications – improved formatting for international phone numbers based on home country – contact information view in card like format for easy reading and editing 16. Redesigned Email appliations – two-pane UI for viewing and organizing mails – sync mail attachments for later viewing – track emails using email widgets in the homescreen |
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New Developer Features 1. New UI Framework – to fragment and combine activities in different ways to create richer and more interactive applications 2. Redesigned UI Widgets for larger screen and new holographic UI theme – developers can quickly add new types of content to relevant applications and can interact with users in new ways – new types of widgets included such as 3D stack, search box, date/time picker, number picker, calendar, popup menu 3. Action Bar at the top of the screen can be customized by developers according to application 4. A new builder class to create notifications that include large and small icons, title, a priority flag, and any properties already available in previous versions 5. Mulitiselect, clipboard and drag and drop features – Developers can use these features to offer users more enjoyable gaming experience 6. Performance improvement to 2D and 3D graphics – new animation framework – new hardware accelerated OpenGL renderer to improve the performance of 2D graphics based applications – Renderscript 3D graphics engine for accelerated graphics operations and create high performance 3D effects in applications. 7. Support for multicore processor architectures – support symmetric mulitprocessing in multicore environments, even an application designed for single core environment will enjoy the performance boost. 8. HTTP Live streaming – media framwork supports most of the HTTP Live streaming specification. 9. Pluggable DRM framework – for applications to manage protected content, Android 3.0 offers unified API for simplified management of protected contents. 10. Built-in support for MTP/PTP over USB 11. API support for Bluetooth A2DP and HSP profiles For Enterprises Device administration applications can include new types of policies, such as policies for encrypted storage, password expiration, password history, and requirement of complex characters for passwords. |